Tales of the Beifong Metalbending Academy
by canadiannotamerican
Summary: A series of short stories following Toph's trials as a metalbending teacher.
1. Shoes

Now that I have more than one chapter up, I guess a quick author's note is in order. This story is just a small collection of short stories that revolve around Toph and her academy. I will add stories to it as I come up with ideas, so it likely won't be a consistent thing. I'm full of ideas already though, so don't worry about me losing steam just yet. I hope you all enjoy what I have to offer.

Disclaimer: I don't own this world, or these characters. I wish I was clever enough to have come up with Toph, but she's not mine.

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><p>"Sifu Toph!"<p>

Toph Beifong shot up in bed, her black hair in wild disarray. "What?!" she cried, eyes wide.

"I had a bad dream."

After one month of running her new academy, it was starting to feel to Toph like she was running more of a daycare than anything else. She crawled out of bed, slowly blinking her tired, blind eyes.

"Penga, it was just a dream." She shuffled over to the frightened girl and tried pushing her out of the room, but Penga wouldn't budge. "Go to bed. Please."

"But Sifu!" Penga whined.

Toph sighed. Penga was only nine, and scared. She couldn't turn her back on the girl no matter how inviting her bed seemed. "Why don't we go to the kitchen for some tea."

All the way to the kitchen, Penga stuck close to her teacher. If Toph weren't so vocally opposed to hugging, she was sure the girl would have been latched onto her arm. Sometimes Toph felt bad for taking such a young girl away from home, but Penga's parents had been happy enough to ship their daughter away, so they must not have been all that great. Besides, Toph was only four years older than her. Arguably she was barely a teenager herself, and she was fine on her own.

When they got to the kitchen, Toph put some water to boil on the stove. Penga climbed onto a chair at their small kitchen table. Her bare feet didn't even touch the floor.

"You know, a wise man once told me that tea solves all kinds of problems," Toph said as she sat next to the girl.

"Really?"

Toph nodded. "Yup. And I'm pretty sure he used those exact words. Now why don't you tell me what your dream was about."

Penga took a deep breath as she stared down at the table. "Well, I was sitting in my room at home bossing servants around, because I always liked doing that. You know, it's really unfair that I don't have servants here . Why won't you let us have servants?"

Toph attempted to roll her eyes. It was something she had been practicing.

"What was that?"

"I was rolling my eyes."

"You're not very good at it." Toph sighed. "Anyway. I was bossing my servants around and I told one of them to move my gold trunk out of the cloud attic. I had a cloud attic in the dream, and the servants could get to it by flying. And the gold trunk was actually silver, but in my dream I knew it was gold even if it was silver."

"Could you just get to the point?"

"I had shoes in the trunk. And they ate all my servants!"

"And?" Toph asked.

"And it was scary!"

Toph felt a drop of liquid hit the table, and it was then she realised Penga was crying. The dream, of course, was absolutely ridiculous. But it had seriously upset Penga, and that was all that was really important. Toph awkwardly put a hand on Penga's shoulder.

"You know, shoes don't really eat people," she said.

Penga sniffed. "I know," she said. "But, you know when you wake up from a dream, and you're really afraid of something in the dream? I'm afraid of shoes!" She grabbed Toph's shoulder and tried to look her in the eye, but of course it wasn't working the way she wanted. "I don't want to be afraid of shoes!"

"Penga, are you... are you wearing shoes right now?"

"No!" Penga sobbed, and Toph found that she actually wasn't wearing shoes. This was very unusual for Penga, even at night. Toph knew for a fact that the girl had slippers she wore with her night clothes. It was then that the kettle let off a shrill whistle.

It took Toph a moment to disentangle herself from the sobbing child, but eventually she was able to lug her tired body over to the stove and yank the pot off the element. In hindsight, it was a miracle Toph didn't burn herself, but the high pitched shriek of the steam was grating on her ears. She transferred the tea to a pot and returned to Penga at the table.

Penga was still crying, and she rubbed furiously at her eyes as though she were trying to stem the tears.

When Toph sat down again, she didn't touch the girl. "You know you won't be afraid of shoes forever, right?" Penga didn't say anything. "Sometimes we're scared of something for a little while, but it gets better. Besides. You love shoes."

Penga nodded. "My mom and dad used to buy me all the shoes I wanted."

"Ah." Toph wasn't sure how to respond to that. Talking about parents wasn't exactly a strong point for her.

Penga looked at her teacher. "What about your parents? Did they buy you all the shoes you wanted?"

"Well." Toph faltered. "They bought me a lot of shoes... but I wouldn't say I wanted them."

Penga gasped. "You didn't want _shoes_!?"

Toph stretched her own bare feet. "Well, I'm sure you've noticed that I don't exactly wear shoes. Ever."

Penga nodded. "I thought you lost them. I was going to offer some of mine, but your feet are too big."

Toph smiled. Penga was really sweet, even if she was a bit of a spoiled brat. Toph could forgive that, having been a spoiled brat herself. "I see with my feet, through earthbending. That's why I make you guys go barefoot and wear blindfolds in practice. Shoes make that... difficult."

Penga opened her mouth in an O. The two of them sat in silence for a moment while Penga stared at the table, pondering on what Toph had just told her. Finally, Toph got up and transferred some tea from the pot into two cups. When she sat back down, Penga looked at her.

"What did you do with them?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"The shoes. You said you didn't want them. Did your parents make you wear them?"

Toph's breath hitched. Her parents _had_ made her wear the shoes they had bought. She had hated every moment of it, and had slipped them off whenever she could. In hindsight, being forced to wear shoes had been what had resulted in Toph running into a lot of things growing up. That was probably one of the reasons her parents were so protective. But of course, wearing shoes was _the way things were done_.

Penga was still awaiting a response.

"I... I wore shoes as a child, yes."

Penga gasped again. "They made you wear _shoes_ when you _didn't want to wear them?!_" At least she had stopped crying.

"Well... yes. But, they bought me other things too. Things that I actually wanted. Like the silk bed sheets, or... I had an entire set of earthen badgermole toys growing up. They all wore different outfits. There was something like twenty of them." Toph sank into her chair. "The truth is, there was hardly ever anything I asked my parents for that I didn't get. They wanted so bad to make me happy."

"Mine too."

They sat in silence for a while, sipping their tea. Eventually Toph let out a massive yawn. Her tea had all but run dry.

"Well, if you're not completely terrified anymore, I think it's long since time for bed." She got up and shuffled towards the door, leaving her empty teacup on the table. Toph didn't know how long Penga stayed in the kitchen after that, but the girl didn't complain about her teacher leaving. She sat in silence, staring into her empty teacup. Toph wondered what she was thinking about.

Maybe the two were kindred spirits after all.


	2. Badgermoles

It was very frustrating to Toph that not a single one of her three students had picked up metalbending. Of course, she knew from the beginning that the academy was experimental. It was possible Toph was the only person who could ever learn metalbending. Heck even Twinkle Toes couldn't pull it off, and he was supposed to be some kind of all powerful bender of benders.

And maybe Toph could accept all of that, that this whole ordeal was futile, that she was entirely alone in the world of metalbending... had her students been able to pick up even the most basic earthbending technique that would make everything so much easier: Seismic Sense.

But they couldn't even do that.

So now she stood on the ground in front of the academy building with her three students bare foot and blindfolded in front of her. Unfortunately they weren't taking to being barefoot as well as Aang had, and Toph could only clench her fists at the chaos in front of her.

Penga was complaining loudly about her lack of shoes. Toph knew the girl was obsessed, but not being able to get through one practice barefoot was a little excessive. Ho Tun was freaking out about every rock that stuck into his foot and couldn't keep still, which of course resulted in him stepping on even more rocks. The Dark One, at least, was taking to being barefoot better than the other two. Unfortunately his concentration was focussed more on frowning and trying to glare at his surroundings despite his blindfold. Apparently he hated nature.

When Penga let out another enraged shriek, Toph had had enough.

"Spirits!" she screamed. "Would you all just BE QUIET!"

"But I wasn't even-"

Toph pointed sharply at The Dark One. "Don't you talk back to me."

There was silence.

"Penga, you are not putting on another pair of shoes. The Dark One, focus on the earth, not how much you hate everything. And seriously, what kind of earthbender is afraid of ROCKS!"

Ho Tun shrunk away from his instructor and whimpered. The other two stood completely still, possibly too shocked to move. Toph took a deep breath.

"I'm really not asking much of you. Just stand still, and concentrate on the earth under your feet. It's really not that hard." They stood.

After a minute or so Penga spoke up. "How long do we have to stand here?"

"Until you can feel the earth," Toph responded. "And no moving. I'm watching you."

There was a collective groan from the group, but it was followed by blessed silence. Toph could tell they were trying to concentrate, but it didn't seem to be enough. After some time she sat down on a rock and blew a puff of hair off of her face. This was going to take a while.

Even though the group was now quiet, Toph wasn't sure she could actually call what they were doing concentrating. She could feel Ho Tun's heartbeat pick up at the slightest sound, and Penga was clenching and unclenching her toes. The Dark One seemed to be drifting off into thoughts of what she could only assume were poetic complaints about his current predicament.

After half an hour, Toph was considering giving up. That was, until she felt something moving under the ground. Suddenly, she smiled. This was going to be interesting.

Toph stood. "Okay. We're going to try something a little different. I want you all to earthbend."

Ho Tun jumped at the sound of her voice and Penga stomped her foot. "But how are we supposed to earthbend if we can't see the rocks?"

"I manage," Toph said with as much control in her voice as she could muster. "Now there's earth ALL AROUND YOU! BEND IT!" she shouted. Her bracelet really had picked the three most useless earthbenders in Yu Dao. Next time, she would have to make sure not to pick crazy people as her students.

Her students quickly responded to the order and each one shot a pillar of earth into the air. It wasn't spectacular earthbending, but it was enough to draw attention. Toph grinned.

The earth shook.

"Hey, what are you doing?" asked Ho Tun, his voice shaking.

"Me? I'm not doing anything?" Toph responded.

The shaking got stronger and The Dark One threw his arms in the air. "We've angered Sifu Toph! Our lives are forfeit!"

Toph only laughed. "I told you lily livers, I'm not doing anything! Maybe if you could feel the earth, you'd know what's happening!"

"I don't want to die!" shouted Ho Tun. He dropped to the ground as his trembling legs gave out beneath him. Suddenly, something exploded behind the three students and the shaking stopped. There was silence.

"What's going on?" Penga finally demanded, then something nudged her in the back. She shrieked and stumbled forward, tripping on a rock. "What was that?!"

"Feel the ground and find out," Toph said. Even though none of her students could see it, she was grinning ear to ear. Turns out teaching could be fun after all.

"It's a badgermole," The Dark One responded.

"Good. You felt it."

"Untrue. I'm simply not an imbecile like my companions."

"Hey!" Penga yelled.

Toph frowned and crossed her arms as Ho Tun carefully picked himself up off the ground. "I learned how to feel the earth from badgermoles. Now's your chance. Learn." The badgermole made its way over to Toph and sniffed her curiously. Toph put her hand on the creature's snout.

"Aren't badgermoles wild animals? They're dangerous!" Ho Tun was backing away from where he'd heard the large creature move. He bumped into a tree and whimpered.

"I've never had any trouble with them," Toph said. "I guess we get each other because we're both blind. You might not want to take that off." Ho Tun was reaching to pull the blindfold off, but thought better of it. Toph really was having far too much fun with all of this.

"Now what?" Penga asked. But Toph didn't need to answer because the badgermole was already examining each of her students. It poked The Dark One in the back with its nose before turning and nudging Ho Tun in the belly. The creature sniffed around Penga's feet and cocked its head slightly. Once the examination was over, the badgermole lifted one claw and swiped the ground around their feet, clearing it of debris. "Woh! I felt something!"

Ho Tun and The Dark One voiced their agreement. They had felt something when the badgermole had cleared the ground for them. Toph chose to remain silent. It had been a while since she had learned earthbending from the badgermoles. Maybe now she could learn earthbending teaching from them.

The creature moved so that it was as close to being in the centre of all three of them as possible before it slapped the ground with one massive claw. The earth shook and the three students jumped slightly. Once the surprise had worn off, they took their stance again, and the badgermole shook the earth another time.

"I think it wants us to concentrate on the ground!" Said Ho Tun.

Toph narrowed her eyes. That's what _she_ wanted them to do. She had _told _them that's what she had wanted them to do. But her students were paying attention to the ground now. She could feel the concentration in their stance. Even Ho Tun barely flinched as the badgermole set the earth to shaking one more time. This was working.

"I... felt something," said The Dark One. "I think I feel the earth."

The badgermole had done its job and it was time for Toph to step in. "Good," she said. "Now earthbend at me."

The badgermole stilled as The Dark One felt the ground beneath him. He stomped, and shot a rock in Toph's direction. The girl deflected it easily, but she had a wide grin on her face. His shot had been dead on. The Dark One knew exactly where she had been standing.

"I wanna try!" Penga cried, jumping up and down.

One by one her students shot rocks at her, until they had each done it enough times that Toph knew it wasn't a fluke. They could feel the earth. They could feel her.

It wasn't like Toph hadn't tried physically shaking the ground to get her students to feel the earth. She had, but they were all so dysfunctional it had driven Toph crazy. Turns out all it took was the threat of being eaten by a giant earthbending animal to get her students' seismic sense working.

Once they had quieted down, Toph turned to the badgermole that had been standing there, quietly observing them. "Thank you," she said, bowing. Her students did the same. The creature remained still for a moment, before turning from them and burrowing back into the ground.

"I think we're done for the day," Toph said.

"That was so cool!" squeeled Penga, pulling off her blindfold. "That's how you feel the world? Every day?"

The boys took off their blindfolds as well. "It's not that big of a deal," Toph said. "An earthbender should be able to feel the earth." Ho Tun was fiddling with his blindfold and staring at the ground. "What?"

"It's just... nobody ever really... taught me to earthbend."

"Me neither," said The Dark One.

Toph frowned. "Penga?"

"I wasn't taught either."

"None of you have had proper earthbending training?" Toph asked.

"Sifu Toph, we didn't come from an academy. You picked us up because you met us on the street. I don't know how you knew I could even earthbend since I was always too scared to learn properly. I never had a teacher."

"I never asked my parents for earthbending lessons," said Penga. "I only ever asked for shoes."

"I figured it would be a pursuit pointless as an orphaned child crying for its mother. I would never use earthbending."

She'd had her students with her for just over a month now, and she didn't even know none of them had had any training? Toph wanted to bang her head against a tree. She must be the worst teacher in the earth kingdom! She took a deep breath. She had taught eathbending to the avatar. She could teach it to these lily livers.

"Well, you're learning now. And believe me, what you just learned today will be essential to metalbending, so we'll be working on it again tomorrow. Understood?" Her students vocalized their understanding. "Good. Now head back to the building and we'll get something to eat. Penga, you can put your shoes on now."

Maybe her students were greener than a... well Toph couldn't exactly remember what all she had been told was green, but she was sure her students were greener than any of it. It didn't matter. They had made progress today and she knew they would make more in the future.

As Penga scurried to get her shoes back on her feet, and the other two headed back towards the academy building, Toph smiled. She needed to have badgermoles visit more often.


End file.
